Big Mick has earned his big moment in top flight

Mar 28 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

IT was drowned out by the screeching of countless Cockney "sparras", but I raised a cheer for Sam the Eagle at Upton Park the other night.

While the West Ham faithful jeered their muppets off after defeat by Wolves, Mick McCarthy – you have to admit, he’s a dead ringer – must have felt sky high.

Four years ago last month, the suggestion that McCarthy would be managing in the Premier League come 2010 might have seen you sectioned.

The idea that he would lead Wolves to the brink of Premier League safety with seven games still to play? A straitjacket, padded cell and electroshock therapy would have been yours.

And rightly so, when you consider that in one of his final public statements as Sunderland manager, in February 2006, McCarthy said: “The 19-points target is the absolute minimum total I want us to hit.”

Not 19 points from their 12 remaining games, but 19 points in total.

Within a fortnight, he was gone. Seemingly for good from top-flight football. Sunderland ended up with 15 points.

Though still not the most engaging of men, McCarthy has never looked back in anger at the trauma of that season or the embarrassing inevitability of his departure from the Stadium of Light.

Instead, he earned another crack at management with Wolves, cracked promotion and now, against pretty much all predictions, has cracked survival.

It’s arrived at least four years late, but respect is now due.